So close I can almost smell it

18 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

I had a phone call yesterday from Human Resources and my occupational health clearance is now ready.

So now the only thing standing in the way of getting on with the practical part of my Return to nurse practice course is my CRB.

I have to admit I’m fed up with saying I hope it doesn’t take long to come through, because I’ve been saying that for weeks now. At this rate I’ll be squeezing in all the 100 hours I need to complete in a couple of weeks, and run the risk of a relapse of my illness.

It’s very difficult at the moment to remain positive.

But I am encouraged that yesterday I helped my friend move out of her house, we were very busy cleaning, moving things and making many trips to and from the car. I was very tired when I got home last night and this morning when I woke up, but I didn’t feel like I was going to slip into a post exertion coma like I would have done normally when I overdid any activity.

So when my CRB is eventually ready I’m sure that I’ll be able to work without feeling like I’ve died after every shift, which is always a bonus!

Where were you when…..

16 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

On this day 35 years ago the King died.

The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, was found dead at the age of 42 from a suspected massive heart attack in 1977.

As I wrote in my last post, my dad was Elvis’s biggest fan and his music was played a lot in our house and that’s how I became a massive fan too.

It’s often asked, where were you when you heard Elvis was dead.

I was with my family on our annual holiday in Weymouth when we heard the sad news. My dad was devastated and I think it was the first time I saw him cry. I was only 10 and a bit bewildered at the time, but later understood what was going on.

To this day my Elvis songs are constantly played on my ipod and will continue to be enjoyed for many years.

My 15 minutes of fame

15 Aug 2012 2 Comments

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

After reading Jack Scott’s post on Perking the Pansies about his radio show appearance, it got me thinking about my very brief moment of stardom on the radio waves. My claim to fame is not nearly as exciting as Jack’s, but nevertheless it was good for me.

A few years ago our local radio station, known then as GWR, was doing a daily slot called ‘Four play’. Listeners were invited to contact the station with 4 songs; their favourite song at the time, their song they dance like their dad to, the song to turn up their speakers to and the song that makes them cry. The presenter would then do a quick interview about the reasons behind the choices and it was edited and played back in the show.

I listened to that show quite often and decided I should let Bristol know about my favourite tunes.

My favourite song at the time was Take That’s ‘Shine’, I liked the song because they had just reformed and I never really was a big fan of the band first time around, I felt it was much better than their old stuff.

My first choice for the song that made me dance like my dad was ‘Suspicious Minds’ by Elvis Presley because my dad was a huge Elvis fan and he actually won a prize once for dancing when he was in the RAF. But alas they didn’t have that one so I had to think of something else, my son suggested ‘Get down on it’ by Kool and the Gang as there is some ancient video evidence of his dad dancing to this somewhere.

The song to turn my speakers up to was ‘Summer of 69’ by Bryan Adams. I have been a fan of Bryan for many years and have seen him live in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol and I adore him…enough said!

I always cry when I hear ‘These are the days of our life’ by Queen. I am a massive, lifelong fan of Queen and I loved Freddie Mercury. Like many people I was upset when he died and the video for the song is just heartbreaking because of Freddie’s appearance. It was the last video he made before he died and he was just so thin and fragile, but still he managed to perform for the camera to thank the fans for all the support over his fantastic career.

He is truly a legend…

Proud to be British

14 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the benefits of having to wait for my CRB to be done was having the time to watch the Olympics. For the last 2 weeks the TV has been on constantly and my blog has been temporarily neglected except for the weekly update of my adventures in fat club land.

It’s impossible for me to name my most favourite moment or even moments from the games. I think it’s all been fabulous; all of Team GB’s medals, the opening and closing ceremonies, the support of the spectators and the feelings of pride and elation that seem to be nationwide.

I have watched a variety of sports, some that I don’t normally have an interest in such as handball and judo. But I was glued to gymnastics, I was so impressed with the success of Great Britain’s teams.

It’s so fantastic to see British gymnasts in medal positions now as it’s only been that way for the last few years. Every Olympics since Munich 1972 I have watched the gymnastics competition and I couldn’t name one British gymnast from those early years through to the new millennium, but I could  rattle of a list of Romanian and Russian gymnasts as they dominated the medal podiums for many years.

Ours teams did us proud, the men’s team got a bronze in the team event, only the second time in a 100 years. In the pommel horse final Louis Smith got the silver and the bronze went to Max Whitlock.

But in my opinion the best of all was Beth Tweddle who is our most successful gymnast to date, she has been world champion 3 times and she added to this by getting the bronze medal in the uneven bars with a breathtaking routine.

This medal was the icing on the cake of Beth’s very successful career, bringing recognition to British gymnastics and catapulting it onto the international stage. She deserves every congratulations she receives.

The curse is lifted…I hope

06 Aug 2012 4 Comments

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

This week at fat club I lost half a pound.

That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s broken the curse of the every other week “stay the same weight” curse that has plagued me during my Weight Watchers journey.

I am disappointed with the small weight loss, but I’m so pleased that I didn’t stay the same again. It’s so demoralising when I’ve followed the diet religiously and find when I jump on the scales that I’ve only lost half a pound or God forbid stayed the same weight as the week before.

Our new leader is a very good motivator and had us working in groups tonight to talk about how to cope when faced with take away foods and what to eat when out and about on days out. It was good to share ideas with the rest of the group and we had a giggle.

I only have 3 and half pounds to lose and I’d have lost 1 stone, lets hope that’ll be next week.

 

The Fantastic Four

05 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

At long last I have managed to get a few photos of all of my mum’s grandchildren together. On Friday my 2 sons, Scott and Jake, were under the same roof as my brother’s daughters, Hannah and Natasha, for the first time in a long time.

I’m really pleased with the photos as sometimes the girls can be a bit shy around my lads, as they don’t spend a lot of time together due to the large age gap. But there is a mutual affection that is lovely to see.

And the winner is…….

01 Aug 2012 4 Comments

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

I have only been blogging since March and I am very chuffed to be nominated for a “Very inspiring blogger” award.

Thank you for much to Crazy Train to Tinky Town for nominating me, I am so grateful for the honour.

As I’m new this game I had to contact the author of the blog to find out what I needed to do to accept this nomination, she had been nominated quite a few times and has won a tidy number of awards even though she herself has only been blogging for a short time.

I need to name 7 bloggers who inspire me and name 7 interesting facts about myself. Naming the bloggers is easy but narrowing down just 7 interesting facts is proving to be a very difficult task… only kidding! I’m having trouble thinking of 7 so I thought I’d follow the example of my nominator and go down the “5 things” route.

So here goes:

Five fabulous moments in my life

The birth of my sons Scott and Jake.

The parachutes jumps I did as a venture scout.

My first kiss with Hasan.

Qualifying as a nurse.

Passing my ballet exams in my youth.

Five things I love

Being Hasan’s wife.

Being a mum.

Sex and the City.

Flowers especially freesias and daisies.

British seaside towns especially Weymouth.

Five things I hate

Clowns, dolls and puppets.

Violence and cruelty to all living things.

Bureaucracy.

War.

Oneupmanship.

7 bloggers who inspire me

Perking the Pansies

Goss Coaching

Crazy train to tinky town

Little dumb man

Earth laughs in Flowers

Being Koy

Kirsten Lamb’s Blog

There are many fantastic blogs out there, but these are the 7 that I read regularly and get the most from. Perking the Pansies was the very first blog I started to read and will always be my favourite.

I hope that my blog will become as successful as the blogs I’ve named in this post and I thank everyone who takes the time to read it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Down by 5%

30 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

This weeks weigh-in at fat club was much better than last week. I lost 2 and a half pounds which means I have lost 10 pounds in total.

I’ve reached my first target of 5% weight loss and now I’ve got my next target of 10% in my sights. After that I can set my final goal weight.

 

Also we have a new group leader who seems determined to whip us up into a Weight Watchers weight loss frenzy! She is much more dynamic than the last one and full of energy and good ideas.  She focused this week on tracking our Propoints consumption so that we don’t eat too much without realising it. I am a bit anal about writing down what I eat and I also have a note book fetish, so it’s win win for me.

So this week I’m a much happier bunny and feeling very proud of myself.

One step forward and no steps back

27 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

Good news on my quest to get an honorary contract to do my nurse practice. My contract offer arrived in the post 2 days ago and today I went to the recruitment centre to hand in my completed paperwork to set the CRB checking machine in motion.

Hopefully it won’t take too long for them to check, for the second time in 4 months, that I don’t have a criminal record.

I don’t understand why recent CRB disclosures aren’t transferable between different organisations. It’s so frustrating for employers and employees to have to do the checks and wait for weeks for the results, even if the applicant has a valid recent CRB disclosure done elsewhere.

I learnt today that there is a part on the form that allows the applicant to get a personal number so they can be tracked in the system, negating the need for repeated checks. Apparently this part of the form is ignored by the CRB agency because the system is not active and never has been activated. One theory is that the agency has cottoned on that they will be missing out on the £43 it costs every time a check is done.

Great eh?

Fingers crossed I won’t wait too long to confirm what I already know.

 

S.W.A.L.K

23 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

Being away from my hubby Hasan is very hard and I miss him terribly. We talk everyday on Facetime and on the phone, but it’ll never be the same as being together in the same place.

So when my next door neighbours daughter, Rhianne, went on holiday to Kusadasi I took the opportunity to send a present and a hand written card to Hasan, something for him to keep and read whenever he needs to. I think a hand written note is very special especially when the message is personal and written with love.

Hasan also used Rhianne to send a present back to me, he bought me a lovely bracelet and a new link for my Pandora bracelet. He didn’t send me a hand written note, but I know that he took his time to find me a gift that he knew I would love.

This time apart is so difficult, especially as the contract seems to be taking forever to arrange at the hospital, preventing me from progressing on the course as quickly as I would like. If I were busier with the course maybe I could cope better with not having Hasan with me. But until I’m working on the unit I can’t get stuck into my reflective assignment, because I need to reflect on something I experience during my nurse practice.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m here away from Hasan to make a better life for us, so that he can have more opportunities than he does in Turkey.

I remind myself that everyday when I need a hug and a kiss from him and I miss him so much it hurts.

We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we know our marriage is strong and we love each other very much.

So no matter how much harder it gets I just need to stay positive and carry on.

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